Around the Westside for Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children recognized the West Baton Rouge Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness and 911 call center officials in New Orleans last week after they completed the necessary requirements to become a Missing Kids Readiness Project member.

The parish’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness and 911 call center spent two years in training and now join a growing list of response agencies that have completed the required steps of the national organization’s Missing Kids Readiness Project regarding how to respond to emergency calls regarding children. The project promotes best practices for responding to calls of missing, abducted and sexually exploited children.

In addition to adopting a policy addressing missing or abducted child calls, West Baton Rouge Parish officials had to complete online telecommunications training from the AMBER Alert Training and Technical Assistance Program.

The parish 911 operators began the training in 2012.

“It was the right thing to do,” said Anthony Summers, assistant director of the WBR Office of Homeland Security. “If we have a child abducted in West Baton Rouge, we didn’t want to have to tell the family we didn’t know what to do.”

Summers said West Baton Rouge Parish is the second 911 call center in the state to receive the recognition from NCMEC.

The parish’s inclusion in NCMEC’s program means ti will have access to any new information and/or resources the organization may have in the future related to missing children cases.

The parish’s policy gives 911 operators a definitive method as to how they should respond to missing children calls, what pertinent questions must be asked and how to transmit the appropriate radio alerts and other notifications for authorities and AMBER alerts.

“Now we know exactly how to deal with it — before, we kind of had an idea, but really didn’t,” Summers said.

Waterfowl steak dinner

The Pointe Coupee Parish chapter of the Delta Waterfowl Foundation will host its steak dinner banquet at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 4 at the Scott Civic Center in New Roads.

The Delta Waterfowl Foundation is a nonprofit organization seeking to conserve waterfowl habitats and the future of waterfowl hunting.

Road work wins recognition

The city of Plaquemine was honored Aug. 2 as one of the Louisiana Municipal Association’s Community Achievement Award recipients for its $15 million road improvement project, which included resurfacing nearly every street in the city in 2012. The award was given during the LMA’s annual banquet at the Baton Rouge River Center.

The award goes to cities that display outstanding improvements and accomplishments for their communities.